47 pages • 1 hour read
Frank HerbertDune Messiah
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1969A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Spice
The powerful psychoactive substance called spice, or melange, symbolizes the interrelated nature of various systems of belief and signifies great power in the novel. Bronso of Ix calls spice the “ultimate coin of the realm” (9). It is essential to space navigation, promotes prescience and expanded consciousness, extends life, creates the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers, and is the most valuable substance in the universe. Lethal in large quantities, spice also represents the dangers of concentrated power and foresight. In Dune, the value of spice is inseparable from the religious and political activities it enables; by extension, Herbert suggests that all economic value stems from systems of belief, and that philosophy creates practical aspects of reality.
Spice is also closely tied to danger and power in the novel. Irulan understands the danger of Hayt in terms of spice addiction: “Melange was valuable […] but it was still just another way to die. The ghola was something of deadly value” (107-8). Irulan understands that things that offer great possibilities often come with high risks and costs. Similarly, although the abduction of a sandworm by the conspirators does not result in spice production off Arrakis, it indicates the severity of the threat to Paul. Just as the Emperor struggles to maintain the loyalty of the Fremen and his own sense of reality, he struggles to maintain control over the economic and religious foundations of his empire.
Arrakeen and Sietch Tabr
The capital city of Arrakeen and the Fremen stronghold of Sietch Tabr symbolize the old and new ways on Arrakis, contrasting Fremen tradition with the effects of Paul’s universe-spanning empire. Looking out over Arrakis, Paul considers that the city “had been translated into an odd symbol for his universe […] ground once trampled by battles rang now to the rushing clamor of business” (163). In addition to Paul’s terraforming and irrigation, Arrakeen—and Arrakis generally—has been transformed by becoming the economic, religious, and cultural center of the universe. Pilgrims, businesses, and new construction have replaced local customs, history, and architecture. Far from taking this as a sign of progress, Paul is disturbed by the profound effects he has had on the planet, causing him to consider his own potential hubris. Even as the violence of his rise to power wanes, Paul recognizes that economic domination is another kind of subjugation.
Throughout the novel, Chani compels Paul to return with her to the desert and reconnect with their Fremen customs. However, when they finally do travel to Sietch Tabr, Chani experiences a mix of relief and distress, recognizing the presence of “outworld odors” in her home due to the “clerks and aides” who accompanied them there (301). Chani’s long-sought destination becomes both the site of her death, and the location of Paul’s loss of prescience and exile. The ultimate disappointment of this return home symbolizes Paul’s tragic but necessary submission to both fate and Fremen mythos.
Language and Communication
Throughout the novel, the motif of secret languages and subtle modes of communication emphasizes the advancement of human culture over future millennia. When the conspirators first meet, they use the mirabhasa language that allows Scytale and Gaius Helen Mohiam to carry on multiple, simultaneous conversations. Later, Irulan and Gaius Helen communicate in a secret sign language, and Alia receives a letter from the Lady Jessica written in the secret Atreides battle language. Distrans communication appears several times in the novel, allowing secret messages to be implanted directly into living organisms. Through these various languages, Herbert suggests not just objective progress in methods of communication, but also the pursuit of more methods of deceit, espionage, and suspicion. In this way, a tool of understanding is manipulated into a method of domination.
At the end of the novel, Duncan Idaho admits that the “plodding, self-important language of government enraged him. It had seduced the Fremen. It had seduced everyone. A […] great man was dying out there, but language plodded on” (330). In this moment, language becomes even more so a tool for the transfer or exchange of power, rather than the expression of human feeling. As Herbert investigates the nature of governments and religions, he shows particular interest for the ways rhetoric is used to manipulate others rather than to clarify intent.
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